DOYLE, Sir ARTHUR CONAN

Autograph manuscript signed (“Arthur Conan Doyle” and “A Conan Doyle,” each twice) of “The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist,” a Sherlock Holmes story from The Return, 40 pages (of 42), plus autograph title page (8 x 6 1/4 in.; 204 x 160 mm), Undershaw, Hindhead, Surrey, [1903]; in dark ink on 40 ruled pages (rectos of leaves only) in two Paragon Exercise Books (each of 20 leaves), with revisions, each exercise book in the original decorated wrappers and each front cover with the holograph “Arthur Conan Doyle / Undershaw / Hindhead” next to the printed “Written by,” the first book marked “I” on front by Doyle and the second “II,” the two bound for  him as usual in plain vellum by Spealls, inscribed by him at top left corner of the front cover: “Sherlock Holmes / A Conan Doyle. / The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist,” half morocco slipcase; lacking the final two pages (about 250 words) of the manuscript, containing the last two-and-three-quarters sentences of Holmes’s wrap-up speech and the coda at end in which Dr. Watson tells of what happened to the characters (these are the first two pages in a third Paragon Exercise Book which seems to have become separated early on).

At three auctions in American and England, 1922-1927 – Cornell University (presented by William G. Mennen; deaccessioned in 1979)

De Waal, The World Bibliography of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson 876

“I WILL NOW LAY BEFORE THE READER THE FACTS CONNECTED WITH MISS VIOLET SMITH, [AND] THE SOLITARY CYCLIST OF CHARLINGTON.” Doyle’s holograph title page reads: “Sherlock Holmes Series / The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist / A Conan Doyle / Original Manuscript.” At the head of the first page he has written: “The Return of Sherlock Holmes / III / The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist” (the last word in the title replacing “Man,” which has been crossed through by the author). There are some 70 revisions by Doyle in the manuscript: pure deletions (nearly all of which are still readable), deletions replaced by new text (ranging from a word to full sentence), and new insertions of text (from a word to a long phrase). Some revisions appear to be made as Doyle was writing the draft; others, often in a lighter ink, were done when the author read through the manuscript. One interesting alteration is the change of the villain’s name from “Murphy” to “Woodley”: Doyle went back and made the change after he had used the former name for a good bit of the story. The last page ends with, “If she is not quite convalescent,” which Doyle has crossed through, beginning the sentence again in the separated third exercise book.

Doyle’s tale of the “young and beautiful...tall, graceful, and queenly” Violet Smith, heiress to a large South African fortune (unbeknownst to her), and the plot to force her into marriage to the “perfectly odious” Mr. Woodley was one of the first stories Doyle wrote for The Return of Sherlock Holmes. “The author was persuaded to revive Sherlock Holmes [last seen, in story form, at the Reichenbach Falls in ‘The Final Problem’] by the generous offers made by the proprietors of the American magazine [Collier’s Weekly]...Having decided to write a new series, Doyle took care to preserve the integrity of his fictional character. ‘I would not write a Holmes story without a worthy plot, without a problem which interested my own mind, for that is a requisite before you can interest any one else. The main problem was the plot. He started well enough – the opening story [‘The Adventure of the Empty House’] was well up to standard; ‘The Adventure of the Norwood Builder’ was also a source of satisfaction...The next story, ‘The Adventure of the Solitary Cyclist’ required some revision [as the manuscript demonstrates], but when that was done, the author felt it was dramatic, interesting, and original. ‘Its weakness lies in Holmes not having more to do’” (R. L. Green and J. M. Green, A Bibliography of A. Conan Doyle, p. 140). The story first appeared in the January 1904 issue of Strand Magazine and the 26 December number of Collier’s Weekly. It was collected in The Return of Sherlock Holmes (1905), where it is the fourth of thirteen stories. Manuscripts of Sherlock Holmes stories from the first three books in the canon – The Adventures (1892), The Memoirs (1894), and The Return (1905) – are particularly rare and desirable.